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COPIE Diagnosis Tool

To demonstrate the importance of the regions and cities in the success of the Europe 2020 strategy and to encourage the exchange of good practice, the EU Committee of the Regions will organise a thematic exhibition during the conference “An agenda for new skills and jobs” in Dublin. The conference will focus on the reform of the labour market, the increase of the skill levels, job growth and job quality.

The COPIE Diagnosis Tool for inclusive entrepreneurship is a standardised instrument developed by COPIE to assess local or regional business support infrastructures across Europe. Based on recent experience from its application, the COPIE Diagnosis Tool is currently in the process of being updated, and a manual on how to implement this instrument will be posted on this website shortly.

The COPIE Diagnosis Tool for inclusive entrepreneurship is a standardised instrument for assessing local or regional business support infrastructures and their inclusive approach towards entrepreneurship. It was developed in 2006/2007 in the context of the European Community Initiative EQUAL and combines a secondary analysis of the overall start-up environment in the region with a direct survey among policy-makers, start-up and business advisors, and entrepreneurs.

Its benefits include

an increased awareness of strengths and weaknesses within the regional support infrastructure;

the opportunity for comparing perceptions of the needs of different stakeholder groups and clients,

the provision of access to European good practice in specific fields of entrepreneurship support and the opportunity for transnational collaboration through COPIE.

Between 2007 and 2011, the COPIE Diagnosis Tool was applied to 18 European regions and cities (please see selected reports in the Policy Debate section of this website).

As a tool based on collaborative action, it was adapted and revised several times based on the experience gained through implementation.

The majority of COPIE partners have applied the tool and have in fact chosen to participate in individual groups based on a diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of their respective enterprise support systems.

A new manual for the implementation of the COPIE Diagnosis Tool has now been finalised and is available for download:

Many people across Europe are falling through a gap between entrepreneurship and employment policies. On the one hand, many of those responsible for economic and business development feel that entrepreneurship is primarily the reserve of the more educated and technologically advanced members of society. On the other hand, those concerned with social inclusion and employment policy often feel that the way to combat exclusion is through employment.